Study of drum language as a communication system in African societies

1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 05451059
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 文化人類学(含民族学・民俗学)
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
• Principal Investigator: KAWADA Junzo Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Professor, アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 教授 (50107835)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAMAMOTO Nobuhito Tsukuba University, Facultiy of Electronic and Information Technology, Lecturer, 電子情報工学系, 講師 (30111090) ; ODA Junichi Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cu, アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 助教授 (10177230)
• Project Period (FY): 1993 – 1995
• Keywords: Mosi / Drum Language / Communication System / Verbal Message / Instrumental Sounds / Burkina Faso / Tone Language / Distinctive Features

Research Abstract

This study aims at analyzing the mechanism to transfer verbal messages by means of instrumental sounds. The material is the drum language used among the Mosi of Burkina Faso (West Africa). On several ceremonial occasion, the chief of court drummers "recite" the royal genealogy, by beating bendre : the drum language is interpreted, phrase by phrase, into Mosi Language (moore) to be repeated in a loud voice by another drummer.
We studied the material by computer-assisted sound-spectrographic analysis of all phrases. The main objective points are :
1) To make clear the correspondence between the drum sounds and suprasegmental features (as well as certain segmental features) of the spoken language.
2) To know how and under what circumstances abridgment or redundancy occurs in transforming the verbal message into the drum message.
3) To determine the idiomatic characteristics of the Mosi drum language.
The results of the examination of these points are :
1) The correspondence between drum sounds features and tonal features is observed with a high frequency, at least at the beginning and at the end of a phrase. The correspondence between drum sounds and certain segmental features in verbal message, as they are defined by binary opposition of distinctive features (Jakobson, et al.), such as acute/grave, tense/1ax, interrupted/continuant, could not be confirmed.
2) Any regularity of the correlation could not be found between the degree of shortening of the verbal message and the repeatedness of the same formulary message, or the earliness in the royal genealogy of the cited king.
3) Of suprasegmental features, we treated only high/low tonal opposition, in spite of the importance of two other aspects, the stress and the duration. However, we could find some idiomatic features of the drum language, either by the spectrographic analysis or by the experiments with the Mosi drummers on the discernibility of significantly modified records of some phrases.